Sunday, 1 November 2015

I was very sorry to hear of the death last week of the historian Lisa Jardine. Although it wasn't her main focus, she made a big contribution to our understanding of early modern mathematics and especially of key figures like Robert Hooke and Christopher Wren. Her books are wonderful - readable, full of insights, and giving a vivid picture of intellectual life in the seventeenth century.

I was lucky enough to hear her talk, less than a year ago, at the BSHM Christmas meeting last December when she gave an inspiring talk about women in twentieth century mathematics -in particular Hertha Ayrton, Mary Cartwright and Emmy Noether.Jardine;s scholarship was important, but so was her encouragement of others. I believe she was an exceptional research supervisor, and her writing certainly inspired many, myself included. I experienced her kindness several times, and enjoyed a few conversations with her in coffee breaks at conference. Twice I consulted her by email, and although she can have had no idea who I was, she replied quickly, enthusiastically and helpfully. (On the first occasion I was seeking clarification of a view attributed to her in someone else's book, and on the second I was hoping to persuade her to talk about the novelist Robert Musil at a conference I was organising - she agreed in principle but sadly the dates didn't work out.)Her contribution to the history of science, direct and indirect, is immense. She is a great loss to the history of mathematics.